Into the Darkness
by ShepardOfFire
Summary: Dean had gotten out of the hunting business many years ago, or so he had thought. What happens when faces from his past haunt the life he built for himself? What happens when his world crumbles down and he dives into that darkness?
1. Chapter 1: Downhill Slide

_Dean and Sam had long since went their separate ways after Dean's run with the Mark of Cain. After all that was taken care of, he went on to find a woman that he settled down with. They got married, bought a house, and had three children, Sam, Henry, and Lucy. Though Dean wasn't too fond of the name Lucy, however Alexandra had been more than willing to let Dean name the boys, so he didn't argue with her on it. The oldest Winchester had finally settled into the apple pie life and left the life of a hunter behind, even having gotten a job working as a mechanic at a local shop there on the outskirts of Des Moines, Iowa. Life was perfect, almost too perfect._

 _One night, tragedy struck as always in the life of a Winchester. Sam was only 8, Henry was 3, and Lucy was just 4 months old when it happened. Dean came home from working late in the garage and went inside the house to clean up. Everyone was in bed, as Alex worked early in the morning and the kids had school and daycare. Not wanting to wake anyone up and not being tired yet, Dean made himself dinner and went to watch TV in the living room for awhile._

 _Around 10:30pm, the baby started crying and he heard Alex get out of bed to go check on her so he didn't get up right away. "DEAN!," Alex screamed from the nursery. Dean hopped up from the chair and bolted up the stairs, heart racing as he ran into the room. Alex was pinned against a wall by a demon, she had Lucy clutched to her chest, "I c-can't move." Dean slowly reached for a flask of Holy water he kept by when the demon spun around and wagged his finger at the former hunter. "Ah-ah-ahhhh, Dean-o, I don't think so," the man purred and suddenly was holding the flask, "That's just rude." Dean didn't know what to do, his mind was racing a mile a minute. The demon flicked his wrist and slowly started dragging Alex up the wall, Lucy still in her hands, "I'm disappointed in you, Dean. You thought you could just escape the hunter life with no repercussion? I thought you Winchesters knew better." Alex looked terrified, Lucy was crying, "What do you want, you sonuva bitch?" The demon just smirked at him, "That's the thing, nothing. I just want you to suffer."_

 _Alex was now pinned on the ceiling, unable to speak at this point, even though Dean could see her mouth moving. That's when the entire ceiling engulfed in flames, taking Alex and Lucy with it. Dean ran and tried his best to pull her down, to do something, but it was to no avail. He should've been quicker and more prepared. Dean ran out of the nursery and down to the kids rooms, "Wake up, come on. We gotta get out," he picked Henry up and then ran into Sam's room and did the same. The three of them ran out of the house, Dean put them in the Impala since it was warded. The two kids were tired and grumpy, unsure of what was going on._

 _The Winchester called 911, "My house is on fire an' my wife and baby are in there. I can't find them. Help, please for the love of God help," Dean said, not wanting them to suspect he had something to do with it for the other two kid's sake. Though, he did blame himself, this was all his fault. "Sir, what's your address? Stay calm, we're sending out units now," the lady on the other end said. Dean gave her the address and waited, he was numb. So, this is what his dad felt when he lost their mom. What was he to do now? The man hadn't talked to Sam or Castiel in quite a few years now, really. He didn't have any family or anyone to really turn to at this point, or so he thought._

Dean had been living out of a motel in town with the two kids. He had taken them away from school and day care to give them time to process the grief of losing their mother and sister, though Henry didn't quite understand yet. It broke his heart when he would ask where momma and sissy were. Sam was taking it as well as you would imagine, he withdrew from everyone and began sticking to himself. It was hard for a child to understand why one minute someone was there, then the next they were gone. Dean didn't really have a way to explain it, either, except that he knew Alex and Lucy were both in Heaven. Though this conversation prompted a lot of questions like 'how do you know Heaven's real?' It wasn't like Dean could tell them, he couldn't expose them to that yet. Or should he?

They had just gotten back from the funeral, though there were no bodies, only bone shards they found on the nursery floor. Everyone gave their condolences to the small, broken family. Dean didn't care, however, them saying sorry wasn't going to bring Alex and Lucy back. Sam and Henry fell asleep in one of the beds, they had a long and rough past few days and he was thankful they were actually getting some sleep finally. The Winchester poured himself a glass of whiskey and stared at his phone before sighing and dialing Sam's number. Of course, it went straight to voicemail. So, Dean called every number he knew for Sam until he got ahold of him finally.

"Hello?," Sam said into the phone.

"Heya, Sammy...," Dean started out, unsure of what to say exactly, "I...Sam, I need you, man. I'm completely...my life...just..."

Sam took in a breath, it had been years since Dean and him actually really spoke, though he wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps that's just how life worked out, "Dean, slow down. What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Truthfully, no I'm far from okay," Dean said, quietly, "I can't explain it to you over the phone, I need you to come here. Comfort Inn in Des Mointes, Iowa...Please...I know we haven't spoken in awhile, but I need you."

"Yeah...Yeah, I'll be there Dean," the younger Winchester said, "I'll be there in like 3 hours, what room number?"

"538," he said, "Thank you...Be safe, I'll see you when you get here." Dean's voice sounded so defeated, Sam was very worried on what could've happened.


	2. Chapter 2: Catching Up

The kids were watching westerns on TV and Dean was sitting at the table, drinking some whiskey but limiting himself. A part of him wanted to go on a rampage and kill anything standing in his way of getting revenge, however he had to think about the children. The reason why the Winchester brothers split originally was that they had a falling out after he nearly killed Sam because of the Mark of Cain. They couldn't figure out how to get rid of it without unleashing what it was holding back into the world. The only other thing to do was go their separate ways, so Dean wouldn't become the monster the world didn't want to see. However, Alex made that side of him disappear after he met her.

They had met at a bar and the two hit it off tremendously well. That's around the time when Dean found that distancing himself from the Mark and the life of hunting helped in gaining control back. The Winchester had gotten a place in town and that's when Alex and him started dating. A year later, they were married and 5 months later they found out they were expecting their first child. Everything finally felt okay and right in his life, the Mark no longer effected him and ruled over him like it used to. For once in a very long time, Dean felt happy and free.

The night that they died, he wouldn't have been able to use his powers even if he wanted to. Dean became more human than anything over the years. He had became complacent and he didn't have much control over them to begin with. Not to mention the First Blade was kept away from the Winchester, which was another big factor in gaining control. Why had he been so stupid? If only he had done something different, he wouldn't have lost half of his world in one night.

Dean sighed as he heard a knock on the door and he stood up, the kids were now preoccupied by Spongebob Squarepants, one of them had changed the channel. He opened up the door to find his brother standing there. He didn't look much different then when they had went their separate ways, except he looked more tired.

"Heya Sam, thanks for comin' on such short notice," Dean extended his hand out then pulled his taller brother in for a hug.

"Of course, it sounded pretty urgent," Sam said, hugging his brother back and then walking past him, inside. "What's going on?" That's when the younger Winchester noticed the kids and eyed them for a minute before looking at Dean, confusion written all over his face. "Who...are they?"

"Sam...those are your nephews," Dean said, giving him the look that he wasn't kidding or messing around.

Sam's eyerows furrowed, "Nephews? What are you talking about? You don't have kids, I wouldn't known."

That's when the elder brother started laughing, "Obviously I do, there they are," it was the first laugh he had all week. The kids were now looking at their dad and the tall, floppy haired giant that was now in their motel room.

"Who's that, dad?," Sam (jr) asked as Henry got up from the pillow he was laying on and walked over.

"This is Sam and Henry, guys...this is my brother, your uncle Sam," Dean explained to the kids. Henry held his arms up to Sam, he wanted to be picked up so he could be taller than everyone else, too. Sam looked at Dean before bending down and picking the young boy who was barely a third of his size up.

"Why have we never met him before?," Sam (jr) had asked, standing up as he sized up the tall man before them. He wasn't sure if he liked the first impression or not that he had gotten from him. He always had assumed that uncle Sam was dead since his dad refused to talk much about him. Though, it pained Dean to think about Sam and him having to be a part, which is why he didn't say much about him.

"We've been...busy," Dean shrugged, he didn't have any excuse. They decided it was better to split, or Sam or someone else was going to end up dead. However, you couldn't explain that to a child, especially one that didn't know monsters were real.

Sam (jr) rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever. He only cares now that mom and Luc are gone, just like everyone else." He shook his head and then went to the bathroom and shut the door, it was the only private place they had there.

The older man just sighed, "He's takin' their death hard...I am too."

"Wait, what?," Sam asked, face scrunched in even more confusion, "Who's death, Dean? Why did you call me?"

"We'll talk 'bout why I called later," Dean sighed, "My wife an' 4 month old daughter just died, Sam...we just had their funeral today."

Dean thought he would've been punched if Sam wasn't holding his nephew. He looked absolutely furious as well as sad, "You _didn't_ invite me to the wedding, you _didn't_ tell me I had nephews or even a nice, you _didn't_ even check in with me at least _once_ this entire time. And then you expect to call me up and everything be okay? That's now how this works, Dean." Sam was hurt worse than he ever had been before. Dean and the kids had all these mile stones that he couldn't even be a part of because his brother refused to even tell him until everything went to Hell. Would Dean have said anything at all if they wouldn't have died?

He sat Henry down on the floor, "I can't do this right now, I just. I can't," Sam was overwhelmed. He wanted to be there for Dean, but his mind was also racing a mile a minute. He just needed some fresh air as he walked out of the hotel room.

"A whole 5 minutes...cool," Dean said, checking his watch.

Henry tugged on Dean's pant leg, "Can I draw picture?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah, you know where your art stuff is, buddy. Go draw as many pictures as you want, but remember what we talked 'bout. Better not be on the wall or table this time...your paper only!"

Henry went about his business getting his art supplies out of the toy bag while Dean went to work folding the laundry that he was neglecting. He needed to keep busy somehow, the bad side of him was beginning to get the best of him once more. _It'll be okay, it'll be okay, it'll be okay._ At least, that's what he had to tell himself until it became reality.


	3. Chapter 3: A Blast from the Past

About 20 minutes later, Henry came running up to his dad, who had just sat down from folding laundry and putting things away. He was thinking a lot about telling the kids about monsters, at least telling Sam then Henry when he got older. However, he just wasn't sure yet. Maybe he would teach him how to hunt, how to protect himself and Henry. Then again, he didn't want it to be a repeat of Dean and their uncle Sam.

Henry was carrying several drawings that he had done over the course of the last week or so. He scrambled up on Dean's lap with little help and grinned, "I show you my drawings?"

Dean smiled a bit, "Yeah, buddy. Go ahead, let's see those works of art."

Henry started going through and, in detail, explaining his pictures. As he went on, Dean noticed they all had something in common: a stick figure with yellow eyes in the back ground of the stick figure family.

"Now...who's that?," Dean pointed to the family and Henry explained that it was Lucy, mom, Sam, himself, and Dean. Then Dean pointed to the figure, "What about that one?" He hadn't wanted to alarm Henry by automatically asking who it was.

"That's Al," Henry said, matter-o-factly, "He's my friend that lives in my closet."

Dean raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Al? When do you play with or talk to him?"

Henry shrugged, "At bedtime is when he normally comes."

That worried the man, "Where did he get the name Al at? Did you name him that?"

Henry shook his head, "No, his name is weird an I couldn't say it, so he said I could call him Al."

Dean just nodded slowly, "What do you and Al do?"

"We play games," and with that, Henry slid off of Dean's lap and ran back to in front of the television, abandoning his drawings on the table.

Dean was flipping through them when his brother finally walked back into the hotel room, "We're going to have to do the tests, Dean. I need to know it's really you."

The man sighed and stood up, "Hand it over," he said, motioning for the supplies Sam had brought in with him. He went through the hunter's test with the knife made of silver, holy water, salt, ect, just to prove he was a human. Then the two took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Look at these," Dean pushed the drawings over and Sam started flipping through them. His face scrunched up in confusion the further he got into them.

"Who's the one in the back?," Sam asked.

"Henry said that's Al, his friend. They play games at bedtime and he lives in his closet," Dean said, quietly, "Note the yellow eyes...guess what colour the demon's eyes were the other night." That empty feeling started creeping up, threatening to take over Dean's emotions once again.

Sam just nodded and sighed, "It's like deja vu all over again. Thought we took care of that problem."

Just then, the two looked up and seen Dean's oldest son standing there, "What are you talking about? Demon the other night? What are you talking about? You don't even go to church."

Dean's mouth was a bit a gape, "Uh..."

Sam looked at Dean then back at his nephew then back again, "You never...?"

Dean shook his head, "I didn't want them to turn into us, man. I couldn't after..." he glanced down at his arm.

Sam (jr) just stood there, "Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?"

"Sit down," Dean motioned to the empty chair as he checked to make sure Henry was busy.

"Son...there's a lot 'bout me you don't know. There's a lot 'bout this world you don't know," Dean took in a breath, "When I was a boy, your uncle was a few months old. Our mom died in a nursery fire an' I carried Sam outta the house that night, it kinda sealed our bond an' I raised him. Our dad took us on the road, we never settled down. He was a broken man...especially after finding out what killed our mom that night was a demon. It pinned her to the ceiling an' lit the whole thing on fire...kinda like what happened to your mom."

Sam sat in silence, hands folded over the table while his nephew looked between him and Dean. "You all are nuts, aren't you? Demons aren't real, 'cause if so angels are too, an so is Hell an Heav..." he trailed off and got quiet for a few minutes, "So...that's how you know heaven's real?" He wasn't quite sure how to take this new information. Were they just messing with him?

"Yeah, Sam...Heaven's real, one of my bes... _our_ best friends was an angel named Castiel," Dean said, then looked at his brother, questioningly.

"Cas is fine, he's been taking care of things upstairs," Sam nodded, "It's getting back to normal."

The kid scoffed, "Yeah, right. That's how I know you're lyin'. Prove it."

The two Winchester brothers looked at each other and sighed, "You want to or you want me to?"

Both of them had been silently praying before that moment, only for another man to have joined them in the motel room.

"Dean...Sam...," the disheveled, trench-coat clad man said, nodding then looking at the two children before his eyes came to rest on Dean's, boring a hole into them.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Dean mumbled, "We'll talk later..."

Sam (Jr)'s eyes got wide as he stared at the blue eyed man, then at his dad and uncle, "Whoa...so...you're not lying..."

Henry looked up, then continued drawing, unsure of when the weird man came into the room.


	4. Chapter 4: Dire News

A few hours later, Henry was fast asleep in front of the tv, crayon still in hand. The two brothers, Sam (jr), and Castiel all sat around the motel kitchen table. They reminisced on a few things, but didn't go into detail about a lot of it for the kid's sake. There were some things Dean wasn't ready to share with him yet, especially about how he almost killed his uncle. Sam had never felt closer to his dad that day, though a part of him still didn't believe them. When he was a child, his dad always told him monsters couldn't get him or Henry, however now that he thought about it, Dean never said they weren't real.

"Did...did mom know about all of this?," he asked Dean, sheepishly.

Dean sighed, all eyes now trained on him, "No...she didn't. She never knew that part of me, didn't want you or your brother to ever know either."

Sam (jr) just nodded, he found himself lost in thought. Had his mom really loved his dad, then? Would she have loved him if she knew the truth about what he used to do? He sighed and sat back in the chair.

"Dean...we need to go for a walk," Castiel said, eyes unblinking as he tilted his head towards the door, a serious look on his face.

"Yeah, alright," Dean pushed up from the table. He walked over and scooped Henry up and put him in bed, covering him up with one of the blankets before grabbing his jacket. Cas pushed up from the table and walked over to the door, silently.

"I'll be back if you don't mind sitting with the kids for a minute?," Dean slightly asked his brother.

Sam just nodded, "Yeah, that's fine. I don't mind staying here."

The two men walked out of the motel room and got a good distance away before either of them even spoke, wanting to make sure they were out of earshot.

"Dean. I think there is something you should know," Cas started out.

"Yeah, I know I messed up with things in the past, man, 'm sorry," Dean said, thinking he knew where this conversation was going.

"No, Dean," Castiel said, stopping and turning to the older Winchester, "Your children...They are not totally human."

Dean's face scrunched up and contorted in confusion, "Pretty sure their mom's human, so how aren't they?"

Cas just stared at Dean before grabbing his arm that bore the Mark on it. Dean looked down at his arm, then sighing. How could that be? He wasn't totally human? But he hadn't used his powers in forever, though the Mark still bothered him.

"The Mark has left it's own mark on your soul," Castiel said, "It is something you're controlling and balancing out, however if you give in...it will consume it. Your children bear the same mark on their soul, and possibly even physically."

Dean thought about it for a moment, neither kid had something like him. Though, they both had birth marks on their arms. However, now that he thought about it, if you put the two together, it formed the same one he had on his arms. He sighed, how could he be so stupid?

"So what's that mean for them? Are they safe? Is there anything I can do?," Dean asked, unsure of what this new information had in store for him.

Cas looked back towards the motel room, "I think it means they're going to be a target if they start to give in or show signs of psychic powers. Has anything out of the ordinary happened lately?"

"Well...Henry drew me some pictures, one of them being a man with yellow eyes living under his bed," Dean offered up, "Though...yellow eyes is dead, so I'm not sure. He said his name was Al and that he only plays with Henry at night when everyone's asleep...But I don't know how, cause our house was warded."

Castiel just nodded, taking the information in, "Perhaps something broke the warding. Dean...we need to be careful. If Hell gets their hands on them, they will use them. After all, they are out of Knights."

A few hours later, Dean was doing some more research on the Mark, scouring over any reading materials he could get his hands on. Sam and the kids were attempting to cook dinner in the motel kitchenette while Cas went off to find out his own information over _Al_ and the Mark.

This urge was growing up his limbs continuously, though Dean did his best to beat it back down. Something in the back of his mind was waiting for the switch to flip, to go on this killing spree that he was getting so antsy for. He was having this inward battle and had been for the past week, though at times it would go away. At other times, it was so intense that he thought he would go insane. Right now, it was getting bad, though he wasn't sure what was trying to send him over the edge. Dean closed the book and stood up, "Sam...Can you? I gotta...I gotta go get some fresh air, man."

Sam looked at him and nodded, "Yeah...I'll be here, go ahead. Need anything, give me a call." Dean had been through a lot, so Sam had no issues with staying with his nephews. Especially since he was getting to know them.


	5. Chapter 5: The News

Dean had been gone most of the night. The kids had tried staying awake, however Henry fell asleep right away and Sam (jr) finally succumbed to exhaustion. Sam stayed up, reading and waiting on his brother to return. He knew that Dean had been through a lot, so he was trying to give him the space he probably needed at that moment. Though, there was this nagging part of Sam that told him things weren't okay.

Dean finally walked through the door and shrugged off his jacket. He didn't appear to be drunk or hurt, Sam sighed a breath of relief as his brother came over to sit by him.

"Everything alright? I almost sent a search party out after you," Sam teased, though you could tell he was concerned.

"Sam...I think I royally screwed up," Dean admitted quietly, "I should've never settled down an' had the kids."

Sam shot Dean a look, "How can you say that? They're good kids, Dean."

"They're gonna be in permanent danger, man," Dean sighed, he looked worn, and that cold look was creeping up on his features again, "They're not...fully human, I dunno. Cas told me that since I have the Mark, the kids won't ever really be normal."

"Like...they're demon spawns?," Sam raised an eyebrow, "Look at them, there's no way. They haven't shown signs of having...powers have they?"

Dean shook his head, "Not that I'm aware of...but I mean look at you, it took all those years for yours to start comin' to you."

Sam was quiet for a moment, lost in thought as he sat back. Dean was right. "How...what are you going to do?"

With a shrug, the eldest Winchester pulled out a shot bottle from the gas station and slammed it back before tossing the bottle in the trash, "I don't know anymore, man. One minute I think I know everything, the next...it all goes to shit."

"We'll figure it out, Dean," Sam said, leaning over and putting a hand on Dean's arm, "I'm here to help, so is Cas. You have a support system."

Dean huffed, "Yeah, some support system when I still have a growing urge to gut both you an' Cas." Sam flashed Dean a hurt look. "Not that I _want_ to do it, just that I have the _urge_ to." Dean pushed himself up from the chair, "The kids are the only thing keepin' me grounded right now, and that's barely. You have no idea how bad I wanna go on a rampage and kill everything in sight. But here I am, tryina make it work."

Sam just nodded, "Yeah...," he was at a loss for words. His brother still wanted to kill him. He sighed, "I'm goin' to bed, I'm two rooms over if you need anything."

Dean looked at him, "You could stay here if you want."

Sam snorted, "Yeah, after you just admitted to wanting to kill me? I'll have to pass."

Dean shrugged, "Yeah, touche. I'll see you in the mornin'."

"Night," Sam said, closing the door gently as to not wake the kids.


End file.
